Bumping down the winding dirt road that leads to the Karolyi Camp in Waverly Hills, Texas is nothing new for members of the U.S. National Teams. Gymnasts all the way from TOPs (Talent Opportunity Program), which can include girls as young as eight, to the Olympic-level senior Elite competitors make the trek to “The Ranch,” as it’s known, as often as once a month. 
But this week a new group—one that is, let’s face it, slightly (ahem) less athletic—converged on the Sam Houston National Forest.
Last year there were maybe a dozen media in attendance at USA Gymnastics’ (USAG) annual National Team media day. This year, with the Olympic Games looming, three times that many came out to chat up Team USA’s top dogs.
Television, print and Internet reporters filed in for a two-day media extravaganza that covered almost every topic, from iPod playlists—currently the senior team have Chris Brown’s “Forever” and Jesse McCartney’s “Leaving” on a loop that have left some girls, “sick of it already”—to the traffic in Moscow. (Seriously. Nastia Liukin detailed her grandfather’s daily commute for almost 10 minutes at one point.)
Shawn Johnson and Liukin found themselves surrounded by as many as 20 microphones at a time, while, in another corner of the camp cafeteria, dubbed “The Clubhouse,” their respective coaches held court.
The media was anxious to ramp up the rivalry between World Champs Johnson and Liukin. When the duo maintained they were friends, really—“We text each other all the time,” Johnson insisted—one particularly persistent reporter asked, more than once, “But there’s gotta’ be a down side to having two of the world’s best all-arounders on one team, right?” (To paraphrase the most popular answer: Umm, not so much.)
For a second it looked like Johnson had opened the window to a wished-for war within the team when she told reporters that she and Liukin had different, quote, “lifestyles.” But, when asked to elaborate, Johnson, looking a bit bewildered, said: “Well, she’s 18 and I’m 16. I’m still in high school … but we’re both teenage girls. We love shopping.” Hardly tabloid-worthy trash talk. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie these two are not.
Others, new to the sport, wondered aloud why we should know who Kim Zmeskal is. (For the record, she was the USA’s first–ever all-around World Champion in 1991 and a Bela Karolyi protégé who is now a well-respected coach in her own right, as well as an international brevet judge. The fact that she bears a striking resemblance to Johnson, or vice versa, is just a coincidence.)
“Obviously, I was 11 [when I won,]” deadpanned Zmeskal, now a mother of two, not realizing that many reporters dutifully wrote it down.
And, once they finally realized who “Kimbo,” as Karolyi still calls her, is, the only question most had for her was, “C’mon, deep down, Johnson and Liukin must really be jealous of each other, right?”
Yep, it’s an Olympic year. And with less than 100 days to go before the Games, the spotlight on what is suddenly the nation’s favorite sport, every four summers anyway, is heating up.
Golden girl Johnson drew the most attention and greeted every answer with her trademark grin, flashing a smile Colgate should, and very well may, sponsor. When asked, for the fourth or fifth time of the day, what she was missing out on by being a 16-year-old superstar athlete, she shrugged. “Most of my friends now have jobs at the local restaurants and stores,” Johnson acknowledged, “kind of what normal teenagers would do. To think that I’m giving up [working a typical teenager's job] be able to travel to Beijing is such a great feeling. It really makes you feel like you’re doing an amazing thing with your life.”
Any teen who has worked the drive-thru, a traditional teen rite of passage, would likely agree with Johnson there: “Normal” is highly over-rated.
Besides, Johnson may not work AT McDonald’s but she does work FOR them, representing the Olympic mega-sponsor as one of their signature athletes. Her photo will appear on McDonald’s cups and other packaging and promotions as the Games near. Heck, wouldn’t anyone prefer to decorate the cups, rather than fill them? (Johnson is also sponsored by Coca-Cola, so she’s got what goes IN those cups covered, too.)
And, of course, there are other perks. For insistence how many teens do you know that drive cars that cost almost as much as some “normal” people’s homes? Well, Johnson, who got her driver’s license early this year, has a Range Rover, complete with an adjustable seat so the 4-9 phenom can see over the wheel, and Liukin’s ride is a “grayish” BMW Z4 convertible. Not bad for a couple of teenagers who are “missing out.”
Both Liukin and Johnson have given up their NCAA eligibility to go pro and each have a host of sponsorship deals and endorsements with some of the nation’s largest companies. Liukin, already a commercial veteran with ads for Reese’s and Adidas, among others, will almost certainly be gracing TV screens this summer not only during NBC’s Olympic coverage, but also the ad breaks. In many ways it is good, and somewhat lucrative, to be the Queen(s).
Not that anyone ever got into this grueling sport for the money, of which there is very little if you’re not of Liukin or Johnson’s caliber. Shortly after describing her sporty ride, 18-year-old Liukin was asked why she stuck with the sport all these years. “It’s definitely not the money,” she laughed. “I never wanted to do gymnastics to earn money. That’s something that’s not in my head at all. The sponsors are great and it’s so much fun, … but that’s not what I’ve been in gym for and that’s not why I started gymnastics.”
Speaking of sponsors, several of USAG’s corporate supporters were on hand to make life for the athletes, and by extension the media, a little bit easier. AT&T has hooked up the remote Ranch with WiFi, a welcome addition for the Facebook-obssesed National Team demographic, and Cover Girl was on the premises to provide makeovers for the gymnasts to make sure they were camera-ready for Beijing. (The rarely seen media was left to look as haggard as ever.)
Some athletes enjoy the media spotlight more than others. There are those that chat effortlessly and remember reporter’s name, greeting them like long lost friends. Others would clearly pick extra conditioning over interviews. But as the reigning world team champs and potential Olympic darlings, Team USA’s golden girls are gonna’ have to get used to all the attention. After all, they’ve earned it.
